A Parked Car

I love this one: "You can't steer a parked car."  Action, be of service, use my gifts and talents to be of use.  What good is it to ask God, or whoever, to make my life better, to help me, fix me, if I am just going to sit there like a parked car and do nothing.  My meditation is when my spirit is in park, but this is but a few of the many minutes given to me each day.  When people tell me that they tried some spiritual path or group gathering, or church/synagogue, to make their lives better and it did not work, I ask them, "And what did you do to be of some service there?"  Almost always the answer is, "Nothing."  They parked themselves and waited to be fixed.  Recovery for instance, is not a fix-it shop where you bring your car, park it, and it gets fixed.  Recovery programs give you the tools, and you do the work.  You work with others, but you work.  Parked is not enough.  Why blame religion that did not fix you, if you did nothing, and between services went no further than being a parked victim?  Yes, there are spiritual paths, religions, recovery programs in which you gave of yourself and were hurt.  When it happened to me, I found that it was not the path so much as it was crazy and sick people who disguised themselves as being well when in fact they were still nuts.  I try to make sure that on a daily basis I do not become one of those.  Be helpful, not hurtful.